The prospects for successful collective bargaining by gig workers in Canada under our existing model, even assuming they are "employees" (which they probably are in our law), are slim, IMO.

1/ https://rabble.ca/news/2020/10/advocates-call-legislation-rectify-misclassification-gig-workers#.X5x8A-bp5t0.twitter

/2 I worked for RWDSU in the '90s when it organized taxi drivers in Toronto, to great success. Union won the argument that drivers were "employees", won the unionization vote. Diamond, Coop, Metro, 3 largest companies. All unionized. Yay!

/3 But that was just the beginning.

Battle to win strong collective agreements for workers scattered across the city, working all different hours, coming & going. Transient workforce. Many drivers not even aware there's a union, many don't want to be unionized, turnover is high.

/4 Servicing a bargaining unit like that turned out to be a huge, difficult undertaking for the union.

Then there was a strike. Just try to pull off a successful strike when there is no workplace & virtually anyone can sign up to become a replacement worker (scab), secretly.

/5 There's no picket line to cross. Scabs driving during an Uber strike might make MORE money than normal, since fewer drivers.

None of the Toronto unionized taxi companies organized in the 1990s are still unionized (as far as I'm aware). The model wasn't sustainable.

/6 I don't see much difference between taxi drivers getting work thru a dispatcher and Uber drivers getting work through an App. No reason to believe maintaining collective bargaining for Uber drivers would be easier than for taxi drivers. Call me a skeptic.

/7 That's not to say there aren't possibilities for reform that could help. I think there are. But the existing labour relations model in Canada was never designed for collective bargaining by gig workers, & I have little reason to believe it work for them now. My 2 cents.